


if we're just noise in a system, we might as well be a symphony

by alittlestitious



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: roommates au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-10-13 02:31:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10504593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alittlestitious/pseuds/alittlestitious
Summary: Maybe this wouldn't be all that bad.





	1. Prologue

Prologue

Emily Sonnett was in a great mood today and nothing can bring her down. Not the clouds turning a grayish, almost black sky, signaling impending rain and thunderstorm that’s about to hit. Not the obvious drug deal that’s going on in front of her (Emily squinted her eyes, Yep, that’s definitely a drug deal. Look away, Emily, look away). She averts her eyes, making a pointed look at the ground as she hurries along, not wanting to attract trouble. Not even the fact that she realizes she forgot her favorite hair tie with the little bear dangling at the end that she’s had since she was a kid. Because today was a great day for Emily Sonnett and nothing can bring her down.

 

She inserts her key into her apartment’s door, humming a tune underneath her breath as she opened the door. The smell of her favorite food immediately greeted her; that pad thai from around the corner that always gave her a stomach ache, but it was so good that she didn’t mind that she had to live on the toilet for the next hour or two. She follows the smell to see Morgan, her roommate, waiting for her with a big smile and the glorious pad thai on the dinner table. Immediately, she feels herself be on guard as she stands at the entrance of their small dining room.

 

“Come eat! I’ve got your favorite,” Morgan says, gesturing to the feast laid out.

 

Emily looks at her, suspiciously. “What’s the occasion?”

 

“Nothing,” Morgan shrugs. “Just wanted to get my favorite roomie her favorite takeout.”

 

“I’m your only roommate since Lindsey moved out,” Emily says as she stared at Morgan, hard. “What’s going on, Brian?”

 

“Eat your food, Sonnett,” Morgan says. “It’s nothing bad, I promise.”

 

Emily shrugs and digs in, groaning as the different spices and the peanut-y taste hit her mouth. She was so busy eating the Pad Thai that she didn’t notice Morgan twirling her engagement ring on her finger; a sure sign that she was nervous about something.

 

Morgan watches her roommate, practically inhale the food, shoveling the food in her mouth, without coming up for air. It always amazed Morgan to watch Emily eat like she was always starving. But as Emily continued to inhale her food, Morgan’s nerves spiked and she blurts out, “Emily, I’m moving out!”

 

Emily looks up in surprise, some of the noodles falling out of her mouth as she stares at one of her best friends, looking all kinds of hurt and betrayed. “What?!”

 

Apparently, there was something that can bring her great mood down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Send me your thoughts!
> 
> Tumblr: 12percentofmoments


	2. one

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emily can be stubborn, but she has a DOG.

“You ruined my favorite food!” Emily accuses as she paces in front of Morgan, the pad thai sitting painfully in her stomach at Morgan’s news

 

“I mean it’s a long time coming, Em,” Morgan says in a soothing tone, trying to comfort her panicked friend. “I mean I’m engaged now. It was going to be sooner or later.”

 

Emily sits on the couch, her arms crossed in front of her. “Couldn’t it be much later? Like way later?”

 

Morgan smiles as she sat next to her. “Em, you’ll be fine.”

 

“Fabrice can move in too!” Emily bargains. “I swear I won’t even pretend to gag when you guys act all gross.”

 

Morgan laughs. “You mean when we act like a couple.”

 

“Yeah that,” Emily says, nodding. She grabs Morgan’s phone from her hand. “Here, I’ll call him and ask.”

 

“Emily!” Morgan says as she snatches the phone back. “I’m sorry, but it’s a done deal.”

 

Emily sighs as she throws herself at the arm on the couch clutching the pillow. “I know. So when are you moving out?”

 

“Well, a couple of weeks from now,” Morgan says.

 

“Great I lose my best friend and my roommate all in one go,” Emily says, pouting and holding onto the pillow tighter. “Now I have to go scour craigslist and find a semi-normal roommate.”

 

Morgan gives her a flick in the ear. “Stop being dramatic, Sonnett.” She gives Emily a big grin. “I already took care of that. One of Tobin’s friends is looking for a place and I mentioned how great our apartment is and how awesome my roommate is.”

 

“Great, you’re already pimping me out,” Emily scoffs.

 

“She’s already looked at the apartment and she loved it,” Morgan continues, ignoring Emily’s comment. “And she’ll move in by the end of the month.”

 

“At the end of the month?!” Emily cries out. “That’s like two weeks from now! That’s too soon! Can I at least mourn the end of this era?”

 

Morgan rolls her eyes. “Get it together, Sonnett, you’re acting like we’re never gonna see each other. Fabrice and I are literally moving two floors above you.”

 

Emily brightens considerably at the news. “Really?”

 

“Yes,” Morgan says. “We just wanted our space.” Morgan stands up and grabsher hand, tugging her back to the dining table. “C’mon finish the rest of your pad thai. I ordered twice as much and I don’t want to be the only one on the toilet tonight.”

 

Like expected both Morgan and Emily took turns running to the toilet that night as they emptied the bad pad thai from their stomachs.

-

-

-

Emily sits on the couch as she watches Lindsey, Sam, and Morgan move Morgan’s stuff out. Steph was next to her scrolling through her phone, refusing to take part in the task at hand. She thought she was okay with the last of her best friend moving out from the apartment they’ve had since they graduated, but no she’s not and she refuses (absolutely refuses) to give a hand in the destruction of the era.

 

“Well, that’s the last of it,” she hears Morgan say from her bedroom.

 

Sam, Lindsey, and Morgan file into the living room taking up the various spots on the couches. There was a heavy sense of nostalgia hanging in the room as they looked around the room, taking in their first tastes of freedom and adulthood that happened right in this apartment. The first time they figured out that putting dish soap in the dishwasher would flood your apartment with soap bubbles. The first time they figured out that one piece of bread does not need to be microwaved for more than 10 seconds unless you wanted to burn your building down. The first time they learned that adulthood came with so so so many paperwork and so many signatures. The first time they learned that adulthood is not all it’s cracked up to be and that it’s still okay to call to your mother, a Certified Adult ™, for advice and to cry to.  

 

“Well, this sucks,” Emily hisses, glaring at her friends. “Now, I’m all alone.”

 

“Your new roommate is moving in on Friday,” Lindsey reminds her.

 

Emily glowers even more. “I don’t want a new roommate.”

 

“Well, too bad so sad,” Steph says, patting her on the back. “C’mon, Sonnett, stop your moping. We all agreed. We’re going to sleep over here tonight as our one last hurrah.”

 

Emily grunts but let herself be pulled by Steph and Morgan to Morgan’s old room.

 

Emily looks around the empty room. Morgan’s UVA pennant on the wall was gone, the laundry basket that was always overflowing with dirty laundry was gone from its corner, the huge life-sized SpongeBob plushie that Fabrice had gotten for her that Emily had to help sneak into Morgan’s room for Valentine’s Day (which took a lot of creativity for the both of them as Morgan was feeling sick and didn’t want to leave the couch; they actually had to throw it onto their third-floor balcony). All was left was the curtain rod that Sam had to buy because she broke it when they moved in. The empty room made a lump in her throat appear that she tries to get rid, not wanting to show so much emotions in front of her friends.

 

Sam, Morgan, and Lindsey had pumped the full-sizes air mattresses that they used for either camping or for guests and have laid it out on the floor with sleeping bags on top. Sam walks towards the corner of the room, her head tilting in confusion.

 

“Ew that stain is still here,” Sam says, cringing in disgust at the spot on the floor.

 

Emily follows Sam to investigate and guffaws when she saw it. It was one of those mystery stains that appeared when they had a ‘small’ get together (that ended up not being small). She looked at the green and brown stain, her nose wrinkling. She turns to Moe. “You better get that cleaned or you’re going to lose whoever is going to take over your lease.”

 

Moe gets up from the bed and scrambles to where the two were standing. “Oh, shoot, I forgot about that.”

 

“What happened here, anyway?”

 

“A grisly murder,” Lindsey says.

 

Morgan rolls her eyes. “Stop watching those dumb CSI shows.”

 

“I mean what else could it be?” Lindsey asks, rhetorically.

 

“Your common sense,” Morgan shoots back as she looks down at the stain. She makes the sign of the cross. “Here lies Lindsey Horan’s common sense. May it rest in peace.”

 

Lindsey grabs a pillow and throws it at Morgan. “Shut up, asshat.”

 

“You know you can learn a lot of things when you go to college,” Morgan says as she goes back to the pile of sleeping bags and makes room. “C’mon, children, let’s get this party started.”

 

Lindsey reaches over to the side of the air mattresses and pulls out the Game of Life. “Alright, let’s play this thing since all of us are now winning at life, we don’t have to feel bad when we play this.”

 

“We haven’t played this game in awhile,” Emily comments as she sits down on the floor and grabs a bag of chips and pops it open.

-

-

-

 

“You cheated!” Morgan accuses Steph.

 

“How can you cheat at the Game of Life? It’s literally impossible!” Steph defends. “You cannot cheat with the wheel!”

 

“You keep moving the air mattresses so of course, it’s going to stop when you want it to!” Morgan yells.

 

“That doesn’t even make sense!” Steph exclaims, frustratedly.

 

Morgan grabs Steph’s blue car, already filled with two children, and moves it ten spaces back. “Now spin again!”

 

“How dare you?!” Steph says, angrily, going up on her knees as if that would make her look bigger. “You cannot turn back time on the Game of Life!”

 

“So this is why we haven’t played this in awhile,” Emily comments to herself. Lindsey was too busy ignoring them as she texts on her phone probably telling her boyfriend to come and rescue her. She grabs the edge of the game board and upturns it, spilling the tiny plastic vans, deck of houses, and money everywhere.

 

As if she was the enemy, Morgan and Steph starts yelling at Emily, who just sits back and watches the chaos unfold.

 

“Children, children,” Sam says, trying to calm Morgan and Steph. Sam glares at Lindsey. “I told you that game was a bad idea.”

 

“That was like the tamest game we have,” Lindsey defends.

 

“Okay c’mon, children, cookies are done,” Sam says to Steph and Morgan. She points at Lindsey and Emily. “Guys, clean that up please.”

 

“Why do the naughty children get rewards?” Emily calls after them as they go to the kitchen. She starts cleaning up the game pieces, making sure to put all of them in there, knowing Sam was anal about everything being back in it’s place. It made Sam absolutely crazy living with Steph and Morgan, who was less than stellar in their cleaning habits.

 

After she cleaned up everything, she goes to the kitchen to see the other four sitting around the table, eating the cookies that Sam had made. She sits down and grabs Lindsey’s glass of milk and a cookie from the plate, watching her friends that she’s called family for the last six years.

-

-

-

Emily sits awake in between either Morgan and Sam or Sam and Steph. She couldn’t figure out under the moon’s light. On second thought, she stares at the feet at the end of the bed and noticed two pale feet sticking out at the very edge. She was definitely not next to Sam. She slightly moves the air mattress underneath her squeaking. Steph groans at the interruption and kicks Sam in the leg. Emily stifles a laugh as Sam rolls from the bed to the floor, but since there was no large gap between the mattress and the floor, Sam didn’t make much of a noise, but she did wake up.

 

Sam pulls her eyemask, looking around confused. When her eyes land on Emily, she jumps, startled, her eyes narrowing. “Why are you still awake, Emily? You know no one’s going to pull a prank on you anymore.”

 

Emily nods, her mind drifting back to the countless of “sleepovers” (Were they still called sleepovers if you all lived in the same place, but slept in one room?) that ended in a marked-up face or being induced to pee in their sleeping bag, or, Emily’s favorite, when they put a coffee table over her sleeping face and blew an air horn in her ear. She had a bruise on her face and a conked head, explaining to people that she slammed her face and head on a coffee table.

 

“I’m not worried about that,” Emily replies.

 

Sam looks at her suspiciously, eyes scanning the room, trying to figure out if Emily was about to pull something. When she realizes Emily was boxed in by Morgan on one side and Lindsey on the other, she relaxes. “Okay.” She shimmies her way back on the air mattress, pushing Steph unnecessarily hard as she settles down next to her. Sam stares up at Emily, her voice soft as she says, “You’ll be fine, Em.”

 

Emily gives her a smile back and nods. “Go back to sleep, Sam.”

 

She watches as Sam put the eye mask back on her face and promptly fell asleep. Five minutes later, she was back to snoring and Emily couldn’t help but laugh. She lays down, settling underneath her sleeping bag. Not even a minute later, both Lindsey on one side and Morgan on the other wiggled closer to her in their sleeping bag. Emily smiles and lets herself be pulled under.

-

-

-

Emily was having a bad day, a terrible day. Her office job just wasn’t working anymore and all she wants to do is quit the damn thing and start over. Really all she wants to do is do what she's passionate about. Well her first passion anyway. All she wants to do is eat food and write about them.

She sighs heavily as she opens the door to her apartment. She throws her bag blindly at the direction of the couch before going to the kitchen. She opens the fridge and looks through it, confused. There was a ton more actual food than takeout containers than how she left it this morning.

 

She steps back and looks around the tiny kitchen. There was an empty box on the counter and from the looks of it, new plates and cups in the cabinets. She steps out into the living room and underneath her TV was a PS4 that she was sure she didn’t have this morning. She was walking towards the hallway, wondering if a really really nice person just decided to drop off some things that they don’t want anymore (i.e. Moe and Fabrice) when she feels something furry tackle her.

 

“Hi, buddy!” She greets, excitedly, petting and rubbing the dog everywhere she can reach. She scrambles to sit down and the dog sits in front her, tail wagging wildly. “What’s your name, buddy?” She grabs the tag on hi collar, turning it so she can see the name. “Bear? Your name is Bear? How cute!” She holds out her paw for the dog to take. “Hi, Bear. My name is Emily. It’s nice to meet you.”

 

Bear dutifully puts his paw on Emily’s palm. Emily laughs and coos as she shakes the dog’s hand, praising him.

 

“Well, she has a dog, she can’t be that bad,” Emily says as she stands up and goes to the kitchen. Bear follows her much to her delight.

 

Emily eats her dinner on the table, scrolling through her phone, through the different recipes she wanted to try while feeding table scraps to Bear. She was watching a video on how to make cauliflower pizza when Bear’s ears perks up and he goes on high alert.

 

Emily trains her eyes on the door refusing to look away as the door opened. Bear barks and runs to the door, his tail wagging, whining as he waits for the person to acknowledge his existence.

 

There were two women that walk in. One immediately walked in and starts giving Bear love. Emily figures this is Bear’s owner and this must be her new roommate. The other stands by the door, watching her. The woman gives her a wave and Emily waves back, awkwardly. They both look familiar, but for some reason, Emily couldn’t place them. She swears she’s the same woman in her poster that she had angrily torn off her wall after her career-ending injury and was now crumpled underneath her bed, never to see the light of day again. The time that she refuses to acknowledge. 

 

The woman nudges the one on the floor. When dog-owner looks up at the woman, she nods in Emily’s direction. “Introduce yourself to your new roommate.”

 

“Oh!” She says, standing up and brushing her hands on her jeans.

 

The woman walks towards and for the first time, Emily can see her face. She was pretty, angular jaw, brown eyes that held mischief in them, and freckles on freckles, similar to the one on Emily’s face. “Hi, my name is Kelley. Emily, right?”

 

Emily smiles at her. “Nice dog!” She blurts out, making the two women laugh. She laughs nervously. “Uh, I mean, yes, my name is Emily.” She continues to look at Kelley, trying to pinpoint her face. “I’m sorry, do I know you somewhere?”

 

“I’m a professional soccer player,” Kelley says. “Maybe you know me from there?”

 

Emily’s face pales. Oh yeah, she was right. _Fuck my life._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Send me your thoughts! Also ten points to the person who can guess where the title is from!
> 
> Tumblr: 12percentofmoments


	3. two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading the last chapter guys! Thanks for all the kudos and all the comments!

Really, Emily didn't know how she managed to talk to both Alex Morgan and Kelley O'Hara, both her childhood heroes (well, that's pushing it. They're only around 4 years or 5 years apart). Looking back, as she sits inside her bedroom with the door safely closed, she probably looked stupid as she laughed too loudly at their jokes and stayed way too quiet when an actual conversation was happening. She looks at her phone, again. Moe hasn't replied to her rant of why she didn't warn that her new roommate was one that she had shared history with that she probably doesn't even remember. She did remember telling Moe about it at one point.

 

She dials Moe’s number again, growing frustrated when it goes straight to voicemail again. She leaves a simple, “You better call me back when you get this message. You are in so much trouble, Morgan Brian.”

 

Compared to the other three colorful voicemails that she left, this was fairly innocent and not a lot of yelling, just a lot of threatening.

 

There was a knock on her door. She tries to get herself to relax, shaking out the nerves by shaking her whole body similar to how a dog would. Once she was sure, she doesn’t look like a bundle of nerves, she clears her throat before yelling out, “Come in!”

 

“Hey, roomie,” Kelley says as she steps inside the room. “I hope you don’t mind. I already put some of my stuff in the living room.”

 

“Yeah that’s fine,” Emily says, waving off her concerns. “You pay half the rent, dude. It’s all good.”

 

Kelley smiles brightly at Emily. "Hey, I'm going to get ice cream. Do you want to come with? We can get to know each other a bit more." Emily might've taken a little longer for Emily to answer because Kelley's smile dims a bit. "Or not...if you're busy." Her eyes dart between Emily's phone in her hand and the stuffed animal that she was holding in her hand.

 

Emily blushes as she lets go of the stuffed dog, hiding it underneath her. "Yeah, that sounds great. Can you give me a couple to change?"

 

Kelley nods. “Come to my room when you’re done.”

 

Emily grabs a hoodie and puts it over over her shirt, not wanting to change out of her sleep shirt. She grabs her wallet and her phone and heads over to what used to be Moe’s room. She opens it, without bothering to knock as she had done so many times before. The stark contrast of the light blue walls turned gray startles her and reminds her that no this wasn’t Moe’s room anymore.

 

Kelley was in the middle of pulling on a shirt when Emily enters the room.She makes an embarrassing noise at the back of her throat at the sight of all that skin in front of her, turning away quickly.

 

“Oh you’re fine,” Kelley calls to her, her voice calm and a little beat teasing. “We’re both ladies here no need to look away.”

 

“Okay,” Emily squeaks out.

 

“Safe to turn,” Kelley says anyway, laughing at Emily. “You’re adorable.”

 

“Thank you?” Emily replies confused.

 

Kelley laughs again. “C’mon. My treat.” She latches Bear’s leash on his collar and tugs the furry creature towards the door.

 

“Can I walk him?” Emily asks, excited at the prospect.

 

Kelley offers the leash to her. “Be my guest.”

-  
-  
-

Emily looks through the flavors, her eyes taking in every little detail of each ice cream not wanting to choose the wrong one. This particular ice cream place usually had only 5 or 6 flavors with one premium flavor being the flavor of the day.

 

“The ice cream won’t jump at you, telling you to pick them,” Kelley whispers to Emily.

 

Emily turns her head away from the ice cream and turns to where Kelley was. She immediately steps back, not realizing how close they were. She ignores Kelley’s confused reaction and turns back to the ice cream. “I know, but sometimes I just don’t know what I want.”

 

“Well…” Kelley says as she stood next to her again, closing the space between them. “Get what I always get. It’s the best.”

 

Emily nods. “Well, what do you usually get?”

 

Kelley smiles. “The Flavor of the Day.”

 

“But you won’t know if it’s going to taste good or not,” Emily says. “What if you don’t like it?”

 

“That’s the best part,” Kelley says with giving her a playful grin. “It’s ice cream. They’re always a guarantee to be good and if I don’t like it what have I got to lose?”

-  
-  
-

After convincing Emily that the Flavor of the Day was the best way to go, they park themselves on one of the patio chairs outside with the heaters outside with Bear on their feet. As it was currently in the mid 60’s outside, no one was there to eat ice cream, allowing them to take one of the longer couches.

 

“So how do you know Tobin?” Kelley asks, her body was angled towards Emily as she leans her weight against the cushions.

 

“Through Lindsey,” Emily replies as she shoves a spoonful of the Flavor of the Day ice cream in her mouth.

 

“Oh,” Kelley says. “I didn’t know that.”

 

Emily nods. “Yeah Tobin used to come around to our apartment a lot and I would try to make her try all the recipes I come up with. She was a very good guinea pig.”

 

“Was?”

 

Emily nods, sniggering to herself. "Yeah, she officially resigned a month ago when I accidentally gave her food poisoning." She shakes her head at the recent memory. "Christen was not happy with me that week and frankly, she scares me more than Tobin."

 

“I remember that! She had to sit out the game!“ Kelley laughs, nodding her head. So you’re a chef?” Kelley asks, curiously.

 

“More like a wanna-be chef,” Emily says.

 

“Well, the important question is,” Kelley pauses for dramatic effect. “Is your cooking good?”

 

“I think so,” Emily says. “I’ll cook for you next week. You know roommate dinner.”

 

Kelley smiles and nods. “That sounds great. I’m always down for a free meal.”

 

“Okay, remember it’s free when you’re head or ass is over the toilet,” Emily jokes, well partly.

 

Kelley looks a little alarmed at her comment before she realizes Emily was joking and she huffs a laugh as well. “Well, no one has ever cooked for me so even if you do end up giving me food poisoning I would still thank you for it.”

 

"Okay, your funeral," Emily says, shrugging as she eats her ice cream.

 

Kelley dominates the rest of the conversation, asking questions from where Emily was from ( _“You're from Georgia, too?_   _No way!"_ ), her favorite color ( _“Is gray even a color? At least green is like nature.”_ ) to her favorite childhood show ( _“Please stop you’re making me feel really old.”_ ). Emily lets her, asking her own questions, but she can’t help but the sinking feeling in her stomach with each question that she asks. She doesn’t remember.

 

“You okay?” Kelley asks when Emily remains quiet. “Do you wanna head back?”

 

"Yeah, I'm pretty beat," Emily says, trying to tone down her frustration at her situation. "We should head back. I have an early day tomorrow."

 

Kelley nods, gathering their stuff and throwing it in the trash. The walk back to their apartment complex was quiet. Emily was trying not to lash out at Kelley for something that really wasn’t her fault. It’s not Kelley’s fault that she stands in the apartment, instead of one of her best friends. Similarly, it’s not Emily’s fault for the onslaught of the current emotions that she’s feeling.

 

Emily escapes into her room the moment they open the door to the apartment, giving Kelley a quick smile. She closes the door and locks it, trying to quell the storm of emotions inside her. She checks her phone again and when there was no awaiting message or voice mail from Moe, she fires off another text with the mad emoji.

 

She sheds off her sweater and immediately gets into her bed, trying to block out the memories that were invading her mind at the reappearance of Kelley O’Hara in her life. She checks her phone one more time, even though it’s only been, maybe, two minutes since she last texted her friend. She sighs and slams her eyes shut, willing herself to go to sleep.  
-  
-  
-

The next day, Emily takes her time going outside not wanting to see Kelley and feelings of rage and inadequacy to be brought to the surface. For once in her life she wanted it to be Monday instead of Saturday so she can escape to her dreary office. When it was past noon, she realizes that she couldn’t avoid her roommate any longer and changes into some jeans and a shirt. She puts her ear against the door, trying to hear any movement on the other side. She didn’t hear any sounds so she opens her door and was taken down by Bear, giving her kisses until she was laughing, trying to push the whining dog off of her.

 

There was a sharp whistle in the air and Bear immediately stills, sitting down in front of Emily, his tongue lolling out and his tail still wagging.

 

Emily reaches down and took his face between her hands, giving it a small massage. “You’re such a good dog, Bear!”

 

“Sorry about that. He was just really excited to see you,” Kelley says as she stands in front of the hallway in only a sports bra and some jogging pants.

 

“Nah, you’re fine,” Emily says, ignoring the way her pulse quickened at the sight of toned muscles.

 

“I was wondering when you were going to show your face, Sleeping Beauty,” Kelley teased. “I’m about to go grab lunch, you wanna come with?”

 

Emily smiles. “I actually have to do a couple of errands. Rain check?”

 

Kelley nods. “Rain check.” She whistled again as she passed Emily and Bear as going to her room. “C’mon Bear.” Bear followed Kelley dutifully to her room.

 

Emily watches them disappear behind the door before she stands up and grabs her keys and wallet. Now she actually has to think of errands to do so that she can stay out of her apartment and avoid Kelley.

-  
-  
-

“I’m telling you, Alex, I don’t know what I did, but my roommate hates me,” was the first thing Emily hears when she pushes the door open at around 8 PM.

 

“No...no...I treated her to ice cream! Everybody loves ice cream!”

 

She lets the door slam shut so that Kelley can hear it and not accuse of her eavesdropping.

 

“Hey, Lex, I gotta go,” Kelley quickly says, hanging up the phone. “Hey, Em, did you finish your errands?”

 

Emily nods, ignoring the way her blood pumped louder in her ears when she says. “Yep. I’m pretty beat, so I’m going to head to bed.”

 

Kelley looks at her strangely. “It’s 8 o’clock.”

 

“Yeah, I have to do more stuff tomorrow...you know things,” Emily says, internally cringing at how lame that sounds.

 

“Okaay,” Kelley says, sweetly making Emily feel even worse for lying to her. “Sweet dreams, Em.”

 

Emily lays on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Her stomach growls loudly. In the haste of not wanting to see Kelley, she forgot that she didn’t get dinner and all she had in her room was a box of goldfish crackers and half-empty water bottles. She chews her “dinner” pathetically, glancing at the clock, waiting for Kelley to go to sleep so she can sneak out. When it was around midnight, she was sure that Kelley had gone to bed, Emily opens the door just enough so that she can stick her head out. She cranes her neck trying to listen for any human sounds. When she didn’t hear anything. She closes her door gently, only to open it again with socks on her feet.

 

She pushes herself from the door, sliding down the hallway, knowing this was the quietest way she can go to the kitchen without alerting Kelley that she was out of her room. It would’ve worked if she wasn’t caught off guard as Kelley’s door opens and she gets taken down by Bear. Emily loves him a little less now after she’s been bowled over.

 

“Oh my god, Em!” Kelley says in panic as she runs to where Emily was now sprawled on the ground, whining pathetically. Kelley turns to Bear scolding him quickly. “Emily, are you okay?”

 

“Yeah,” Emily moans as she sits up, rubbing her head. “I’m good, I think.” She glares at Bear, who looks at her innocently and Emily swears the dog is giving her a cheeky smirk. Emily stands up. “Are you heading somewhere?” Emily asks, noticing that Kelley has a duffle bag on one shoulder and Bear’s leash in her hand.

 

Kelley nods. “Gonna go visit Chris and Tobin for the weekend since they live so close to the beach.”

 

“Oh,” Emily says, disappointment tinting her voice. Really she was just going to avoid Kelley the whole weekend, but Kelley not being doesn’t really sit well with her either. “Have a nice weekend.”

 

Kelley gives Emily a big smile and despite Emily’s feelings at the moment, she couldn’t help, but smile back. “I’ll see you on Tuesday?”

 

Emily nods and Kelley gives her a two-fingered wave as she leads Bear out. Emily watches them go and waits until the door has latched shut before she walks to the kitchen to grab something to eat. On the counter, there was a small bowl covered with foil. She peels it back to see the bright yellow of the fake cheese that Kraft's mac and cheese is known for. There was also a note in a surprisingly beautiful handwriting (seriously this could go on wedding invitations. Emily had half a mind to save it) that says I’m sorry, roomie.

 

Emily looks surprised but also a bit sheepish that her behavior was so bad that her roommate actually had to apologize to her. She thought she was masking it pretty well, but apparently not if Kelley made her mac and cheese, a food that she admits to always wanting to eat, but actually being too lazy to make it.

 

She picks it up and sits on the counter. She eats it slowly, her guilt making the food taste bad against her taste buds. She forces herself to finish it and when every macaroni was gone, she puts the bowl in the dishwasher, feeling exhausted. Her sleep was restless filled with toss and turns.

-  
-  
-

Emily wakes up with a feeling of being watched. Her back was towards the door, so she tries to ignore the feeling. She slowly grabs the small hunting knife from under her pillow.

 

“What are you doing?” Then she hears the crunching and chewing that she’s been used to for the last five years.

 

Emily jumps and turns her head, and glares at the person her hand still gripping the knife under her pillow. She jumps up and nearly tackles Morgan off the chair. “What are you doing here?”

 

"Uhh I came down from the mountain and I get ten missed calls, three voicemails, two of which were very threatening, and 15- no wait 19!- 19 text messages saying that I'm in trouble, of course, the first place I'm going to go to is here," Morgan says as if it was obvious as she puts down Emily's Captain Crunch on her dresser. "What is going on, Em? You remember Kelley. You've met her before. I mean we're not including your embarrassing crush on her when we were in college-"

 

“Bean, stop,” Emily says, shaking her head, her hand coming up on Morgan’s shoulder to stop her rambling. “Morgan, she doesn’t remember.”

 

“Doesn’t remember what?” Morgan asks, confused.

 

“That we slept together.”


	4. three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know you guys got some notification that this was up, but I didn't like the way it was so I pulled it down very quickly to fine tune some things. I still don't like this chapter, but I feel like it's not going to get any better.

“Are you high?” Morgan asks with a little laugh as she puts her cereal down on her dresser. “You did not sleep with Kelley O’Hara.”

 

“Yes I did,” Emily says a little hurt that Morgan won’t believe her.  “Moe, I told you about it.”

 

“No you didn’t,” Moe insists. “I think I would’ve remember you telling me something like this, Emily.”

 

Emily huffs in frustration. “It’s not my fault if you can’t remember when I tell you things, but I swear that I told you! I even called you when I was leaving her place!”

 

Morgan tries to remember that ever happening, but either she really doesn’t remember it or it  didn’t happen. “When was this?”

 

“Last year when they had a game here,” Emily tells her.

 

“Wait,” Morgan’s brows furrow. “Was this when I told you to meet us at the hospital because Sam was hit by a car?”

 

“Oh yeah,” Emily says, cringing.

 

“You expected me to remember a romp when our friend was in the hospital?” Morgan asks, rhetorically.

 

“Okay first of all no one says romp unless they’re sixty. And she wasn’t hit by a car! She swerved for a freakin cow!” Emily says, making Morgan roll her eyes.

 

“Well she was still in the hospital Emily Ann,” Morgan says.

 

“She swerved for a cow!” Emily says, emphatically.

 

“Well carry on with what you were going to say about your imaginary romp with your no 1,” Morgan says. Emily opens her mouth to continue but Morgan beats her to it. “Wait. I still can’t believe you got your number one on the list though and I forgot about it!”

 

“Yeah, Bean, you’re such a bad friend,” Emily says sarcastically.

 

“Aw, Em, you flatter me,” Morgan says with a hand to her chest, her voice going classic valley girl on her. “Anyway, so what’s the problem with Kelley forgetting that she slept with you? Other than the obvious of course.”

 

“Because I don’t know how to act!” Emily says exasperated as she flops on the bed again, covering her eyes as she groans.

 

“Well, don’t be your passive aggressive self,” Morgan advises. Emily turns her eyes on her and Morgan can practically see the abashedness swimming in them. “Of course you did. You can’t act like a jilted girlfriend, Emily.”

 

“I know!” Emily moans as she sits back up. “But how am I supposed to feel when someone doesn’t even remember that we slept together.”

 

“Woah, Emster had a one night stand?” Lindsey says as she comes inside the room clutching

 

“You invited Horan?” Emily asks, glaring at Morgan.

 

“What do you expect me to do when I get a bajillion messages from you saying I’m in trouble?” Morgan asks rhetorically.

 

“I’m just here so that she can have an alibi in case you murder her,” Lindsey says, as she grabs the cereal that Morgan was eating. “But carry on. Who did you sleep with that don’t remember you slept together?”

 

“Kelley O’Hara,” Emily sighs, burying her face in her arms.

 

Lindsey chokes on the cereal, prompting Morgan to pat her on the back. Lindsey puts the bowl down and stares at Emily. “Kelley O’Hara. Defender-for-your-women’s-national-team-my-teammate-the-number-one-on-your-list that Kelley O’Hara?”

 

Emily nods, face still in her arms.

 

“When?” Lindsey demands.

 

“When Sam got into a car accident,” Morgan explains.

 

At the same time, Emily yell, “She swerved for a _cow_!”

 

“Nice,” Lindsey says nodding her head as she holds out her clenched fist for a fist bump.

 

“No not nice!" Emily says, her head up as she swats her hand away. “She doesn’t remember sleeping with me.”

 

“Oh yeah,” Lindsey says sympathetically, patting Emily on the back. “So what’s the problem?”

 

“She’s been acting like a jilted girlfriend,” Morgan supplies for her.

 

“Jilted? Seriously what are you forty?” Emily asks Morgan.

 

“Keep teasing me like that Sonn and I won’t help you with your problem,” Morgan says, glaring at her.

 

“You’re the reason I’m in this position in the first place!” Emily yells, frustration evident as she swings her legs over the bed and stalks to the kitchen.

 

“Well I don’t see what the problem is other than your pride being in jeopardy,” Morgan says, exasperated. “You guys slept together and she forgot. You guys were probably drunk out of your mind. As far as I can see you should apologize for a being a dick and start over!”

 

“Excuse me?!” Emily asks as she goes over to Morgan, raising herself, trying to make herself look bigger than she really was.

 

“Alright, you two calm down,” Lindsey says as she goes between the two of them, prying them apart. “Moe is right. Just apologize to her. You don’t even have to say why. Just make her one of your homemade vanilla ice cream. Anybody will forgive you if they eat those. Now.” she steps back. “Apologize or I’m going to put you in the get-along shirt.”

 

“We burnt that shirt after Rose threw up in it,” Emily reminds her.

 

“Yeah but we bought a new one,” Lindsey says. “We haven’t used it yet because we’ve all been good kids, but I swear to god I will go and get it if you guys don’t apologize to each other.”

 

Morgan steps forward and hugs Emily. “Sorry, Em.”

 

“Sorry, Bean,” Emily murmurs hugging her friend tighter. “Sorry for snapping at you.”

 

“It’s okay,” Morgan said.

 

“Whew,” Lindsey says, jokingly. “Now we’re all good. Let’s go to the kitchen. Em, you can make us some food because I did not come here right after practice not to be fed.”

-

-

-

 

Emily took her friends’ advice and tries to let it go. She made her homemade vanilla ice cream and sticks it in the freezer so she can give it to Kelley when she comes back from her weekend. Emily tries to keep herself busy by cleaning the apartment, twice and finally going out for a run. When she gets back to her apartment, she was bowled over by Bear and she never felt more excited to see the furry beast.

 

“Hi Bear!” Emily greets, her voice rising in pitch. “Hi! Buddy!”

 

Bear whines, rubbing himself against Emily, tail thumping as he tries to get all the affection that he can from the blonde.

 

“Did you have a nice weekend? I missed you!” Emily says to the dog.

 

“I’m glad that you at least missed one of us.”

 

Emily looks up and sees Kelley at the doorway of the hallway, carrying her dirty laundry. Kelley gives her a sheepish smiles as she stands up and backs away from Bear.

 

“Oh by all means keep rubbing him,” Kelley says as she looks down at Bear. “Look you made him sad when you stopped.”

 

Emily looks down to see Bear, his big brown eyes trained on her as if asking for more rubs. “Oh fine, you big baby,” Emily says as she drops down next to him again, rubbing him all over. “You’re going to do laundry?” The moment the question leaves her mouth, Emily wanted to thump herself in the head. “Of course you are, what else would you be doing with a laundry basket and laundry soap?”

 

Kelley laughs. “Well obviously, I’m going to go ride it on the hill at the park and use soap to decrease the friction.”

 

“Well tell me how it goes, I do miss sledding,” Emily jokes.

 

Kelley laughs again. “Alright, be back.”

 

“See ya,” Emily says as she continues to rub Bear. Emily feels a warmth in her chest for hearing her laugh and not only that, but being the cause of it. “Your mom isn’t mad at me, right?” Emily asks him. Bear just nudges at her hands again. “A little reassurance would be nice, Bear,” Emily grumbles as she stands up and brushes her jeans.

 

She goes to the kitchen and grabs the homemade vanilla ice cream, scooping some into two bowls. She goes to the dining table, the bowls of ice creams in her hand, the two spoons’ handles dangling from her mouth. She places one of the bowl in front of an empty chair and she takes one of the chairs across from it. She waits, tapping the spoon against the bowl, creating a small rhythm in her head.

 

When she hears the doorknob rattling, Emily sits at attention, her fingers drumming against her thighs. Kelley opens the door, not paying attention to Emily at all, her eyes too busy scrolling through her phone. When she looks up and sees Emily on the dining table with two bowls of ice cream in front of her, she stops short.

 

“What’s going on?” Kelley asks.

 

“Here have some ice cream,” Emily says as she nudges the ice cream towards her, giving her, what she hopes, a friendly smile.

 

Kelley gives her a wary look, but sits at the table anyway, pulling the bowl towards her. She grabs the spoon, her eyes still on Emily, who still sports a too wide smile. She scoops a small amount of it on her on spoon and raises it to her lips, her tongue darting out to taste the concoction. Her eyes darts to the bowl, letting out a little squeal at the taste. “Oh wow this is really good!”

 

“Thank you!” Emily says with a smile. “I thought I overdid it on the vanilla, but I went with my gut.”

 

“Wait, you made these?” Kelley asks, surprised coloring her voice.

 

“Yeah they’re my special occasion ice cream,” Emily says.

 

“What’s the special occasion?” Kelley asks as she continues to eat it. “You’re not going to kick me out, right?”

 

Emily chokes on her ice cream and laughs.

 

“I’m hoping that laugh doesn’t mean yes,” Kelley says, giving her a guarded look.

 

“No,” Emily says, shaking her head. “It’s just that’s how Morgan broke the news that she was going to move out. She gave me my favorite food.”

 

“Oh what’s that?” Kelley asks. “You know for future reference.”

 

“Pad Thai from this restaurant down the street,” Emily says.

 

Kelley nods, making a note in her head. “So if not kicking me out, what’s the special occasion?”

 

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve been a little bit moody lately,” Emily says, unsure how to broach the topic. Kelley scoffs and Emily winces and changes her wording. “Okay a lot moody. I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for that I didn’t mean to be snappy and all that.”

 

“Well for a second there I thought you were going to ask me to move out,” Kelley jokes but with the way cringes as her eyes quickly look down to avoid Kelley’s eyes. “It’s fine. You know sometimes we just have an off day or for you an off week.” Emily still continues to look down, embarrassed. Kelley touches Emily’s arm to make her look at her. “It’s fine, Em. How about we start over? Starting right now, we’re at a clean slate.” She holds out her hand for Emily to shake.

 

“Okay. Put’er there,” Emily agrees, spitting on her hand and was about to shake Kelley’s hand, but Kelley quickly withdraws it.

 

“Gross!” Kelley says as she holds her hand against her chest.

 

“Oh we’re not there yet?”

 

“No we are not,” Kelley says. “Go wash your hands and we can shake on this properly.”

 

“Okay,” Emily says, pushing the chair back so hard in her excitement, it almost topples over. She goes to the sink and quickly washes her hand. Once it was all clean, Kelley making sure that she washed it with soap twice, Emily and Kelley shook on it before they went back to the table to finish their ice cream.

-

-

-

Despite agreeing that they were starting from a clean slate, the following days after the apology was still a little bit awkward as Emily still was unsure how to act without giving what she knows away and Kelley was just oblivious, which Emily thought was really for the better that she was. Their conversations were strained as they try to avoid talking about the first couple of weeks. Kelley desperately wanted to know why she received the cold shoulder when she arrived, but Emily wasn’t budging, always running when the conversation got too personal for her.

 

It took a couple of weeks really for the tension that was previously there pretty much dissipated when Emily apologized and they enjoyed the new chill and fun atmosphere that settled in their apartment. Kelley is no longer tiptoeing around the apartment, afraid that Emily might snap at her for something she didn’t do, Emily noticed. Kelley was rarely stays in her room now unless it’s for sleeping and even then Emily has seen her napping around the house. Emily considered that a win since wherever Kelley goes, Bear goes. And really who can resist the cute mutt?

  


“Should I be worried?”

 

Emily falls down on the yoga mat, groaning. Emily didn’t even bother to get up, her arms and legs spread, as she she huffs. The television in the background continued to play a tutorial on different poses.

 

Kelley laughs at her roommate as she goes over to her and looks down at her red and puffing roommate. Bear follows her, standing over Emily as well. “What are you doing?”

 

Bear tilts his head as he watches Emily’s sweaty, scarlet face. He leans down and starts licking her face.

 

“Ack!” Emily cries laughing as Bear continues to lap at her face. Emily holds up her hands in front of her face trying to push him away.

 

“Bear, heel,” Kelley says, laughing. Bear sits on his haunches looking up at Kelley, whining at stopping his fun.

 

Emily looks up at her, shooting her the most helpless look she can muster. “Help?” she asks, holding out her hand.

 

Kelley chuckles and clasps their hands together, tugging her up. “What are you doing?” she asks again.

 

Emily sighs frustratedly, blowing a wisp of her strawberry blonde hair away from her face. “Yoga because Christen was spewing all the health benefits when I last talked to her so I thought, hey why not? And she said it was really easy for beginners! That little liar!” Her voice became higher at the end as she conveys how mad she is for being misled.

 

Kelley laughs. “Because you’re doing some advance positions there!”

 

Emily shrugs. “I just looked up a tutorial on YouTube and that’s what it gave me.”

 

“Need help?” Kelley asks.

 

“You know how to do yoga?’

 

“Please I used to live with Press,” Kelley says as she goes to her room to get her yoga mat. She places her mat next to Emily. “Alright, you ready for this?”

 

“Go easy on me, this is my first time,” Emily says as she sits down on the mat.

 

Kelley looks over her shoulder, giving her a smirk. “Really? I would’ve thought differently with the way you were moving on that mat.”

 

Emily felt herself turn red and it wasn’t from her words because she heard them before.. The light mood that she was feeling earlier was gone and instead the humiliation she feels begins to set in again at the reminder of why. She shakes it off and looks into Kelley’s cheeky eyes. Using her smile as a distraction, Emily sweeps her legs from under her. “You were saying?”

 

Kelley looks at her with a look that Emily couldn’t decipher and for as quick as it came it was gone. She shakes her head at Emily, chuckling. “Alright, my little yogi, let’s do this.”

-

-

-

“I thought you said we were doing beginner’s stuff?!” Emily cries as she lays on the mat, her eyes closed as she tries to catch her breath. She swears that she was dying and she can actually feel her soul leaving her body right at this moment. She feels a nudge against her hip and Emily curls up, groaning. “No! You lied to me!”

 

“C’mon, Em,” Kelley says. “You were doing so well so I thought you could handle a little bit something more physical.” She grabs her water bottle and kneels by Emily’s head.

 

“Well not everyone as good as  you, Kelley.” Emily says as she opens her mouth letting Kelley squirt some water in her mouth much to Emily’s relief.

 

Kelley flexes her arms, drawing Emily’s eyes to them, “You’re right. No one can.”

 

Emily can feel her mouth go dry, unconsciously licking her lips at the sight. “Put those away, O’Hara. Stop being a peacock.”

 

“I just can’t help that I’m that good looking,” Kelley says. “I mean am I really showing off if I have something to show off.”

 

Emily rolls her eyes, even though her head was screaming at her, _hell yes show off your goddamn body!_ “It’s showing off,” she deadpans. “Not everyone can be as fit as you, Kelley.”

 

Before Kelley can stop herself, she blurts out, “That’s not what I heard.”

 

Emily’s eyes shoot to hers. “You’ve been talking behind my back, O’Hara?”

 

“Of course not,” Kelley says as she squirts some water in her mouth, her eyes drifting away from Emily’s, partly in guilt because she has been asking around about Emily, and also because the way Emily was heaving on the mat was giving her feelings a roommate shouldn’t have. The room was too small all of a sudden. She stands up again, heading towards the kitchen, filling up her water bottle. “Hey, wanna go for a hike?”

 

Emily’s eyes track the circular movement of the ceiling fan as she listens to Kelley putter around in the kitchen. “We just did the most intensive yoga that I’ve ever done in my life and you want to go on a hike?”

 

“It’s a nice day outside,” Kelley says, choosing not to say that the enclosed space was making her delirious and she needs the open space to think.

 

“No,” Emily says, her voice firm as her eyes continue following the fan.

 

“Bear is coming,” Kelley says in that tone that people use to entice and convince someone.

 

Emily groans as she stands up, rolling up both of their mats. “Damn you, O’Hara. You know my weakness.”

 

Kelley laughs. “Bear and I will be waiting here.”

-

-

-

“Can I walk him?” Emily asks, holding out her hand for the leash as they walk over roots and rocks.

 

“Are you sure you can handle him?” Kelley asks, with a raised eyebrow.

 

“I mean he looks like a good boy,” Emily says, putting her palms together, pleading. “Please, please. Let me walk him!”

 

Kelley sighs as she turns away from Emily’s hazel eyes. “Fine.”

 

Emily fist pumps and grabs the leash from Kelley, taking off in a run, dragging Bear with her. Kelley shakes her head in amusement and following them in a light jog, not wanting to overwork herself. She sees Emily at the top of the hill, pumping her hands high in the air as Bear jumped around with her. Kelley laughs as she sees Emily messing around with Bear.

 

Kelley really likes this goofy, funny, carefree Emily that appeared after she apologized. She was like a whole other person, not the moody, passive aggressive roommate that Kelley was living with for the last couple of weeks or so.

 

“C’mon, slowpoke!” Emily teases from the top. “And you call yourself an athlete!”

 

“Nah, the view is great from down here!” Kelley calls back as she stares up at them.

 

Emily shrugs before turning back to the view. She watches the curve of her shoulder rise and fall as she takes in the view in front of her, breathing deeply. She raises her hands  to the sky, stretching.

 

Kelley watches from below as she runs after Bear, teasing him, before Bear runs after Emily, knocking her off her feet. Kelley winces as she runs up the hill as fast as she can. She can hear Emily giggling as she lay underneath the squirming dog on top of her.

 

“Do you need help?” Kelley asks.

 

“Nah, just let me be licked to death,” Emily tells her.

 

Kelley laughs before she whistles, calling Bear to her. Bear immediately stops and runs to Kelley’s side. Emily stands up, brushing off the dirt and grass that adhered to her clothes when she got tackled.

 

“Can we go back now or did you inhale enough oxygen?” Emily asks as she stands in front of Kelley. She tilts her head as she looks down at Kelley. “Hey I’m taller!”

 

Kelley scowls at her. “Yeah by two inches. Don’t get cocky.”

 

Emily pops the non-existent collar on her shirt. “Don’t you know? I’m certifiable cocky-fresh?”

 

A smile was playing on Kelley’s lips as she shakes her head at Emily. She scoffs. “Dork.”

 

“I embrace my dorkness!” Emily yells, holding out her arms.  “You should embrace your dorkness too.”

 

“I’m not a dork,” Kelley counters, her lips seem to be stuck in a permanent smile.

 

“Everybody is a dork, Kelley,” Emily says. “So embrace your dorkness!” She hip-checks Kelley as Kelley remains unmoved by her motions. “C’mon. Yell it...you know you want too...c’mon…”

 

“Fine!” Kelley says turning to the view, yelling at the top of her lungs. “I’M A DORK!” When she doesn’t hear quip from Emily, she looks over her shoulder, a smirk already on her lips. The smile that was plastered on her face falls off as she sees two probably college students looking at her, judging her. “What?” She snaps at them making them scamper away from them.

 

Emily was laughing off to the side. Kelley narrows her eyes at her and slaps her on the arm. “Thanks a lot, you little shit,” Kelley says. She tugs on her arm. “C’mon, let’s get out of here before you make me scream something else.”

 

“Oh you mean like my name?” Emily asks with a lewd grin on her face. She ignores the voice in her head screaming to tell Kelley, _like that time I made you see stars._

 

Kelley laughs and laughs and laughs and okay now it’s just hurting Emily’s feelings as she continues to laugh harder as if that mere thought of them was a joke. She sighs and says, “Well I walked into that one. Let’s go home before you get any ideas.”

 

Emily wanted the earth to split open and swallow her up and take away this feeling of rejection that’s at the pit of her stomach. Instead, she lets herself be pulled by Kelley and Bear back to the bottom of the small mountain they just climbed, the descent feeling very much like how she feels right now, like she’s back at her lowest point. She hates it.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed reading that!


	5. four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so short chapter, but i'm trying to get back into writing this one. So we'll see what's going to happen.

Emily quickly learned that being around Kelley gave you that feeling of invincibility and constant happiness. Not the happiness that you feel content, but the more shallow happiness where you’re constantly laughing at everything and the jokes just seem to be a little funnier than usual.  What feels like minutes is actually hours whenever she spends time with Kelley and she doesn’t want to admit it but she’s addicted.

 

“HA!” Emily hears Kelley cry gleefully as she pushes the door with her shoulder, her arms laden with groceries.

 

“What’s got you screaming?” Emily asks as she drops the groceries.

 

“I finally beat Tobin’s high score!” Kelley says as she screenshots her phone. “It won’t be taunting me anymore.”

 

“Hey can you text Tobin and ask her to come over? I have a couple of things I want her to try,” Emily says as she put the groceries away. “Tell her it’s not heavy on milk.”

 

Kelley nods as she relays the message before she gets up and goes to stand next to Emily, going on her tiptoes to see what she bought. “They said they’re coming over in a couple of hours.”

 

“Great, that should give me enough time,” Emily mutters to herself as she separates the ingredients. She turns around to grab something from another bag when she runs right into Kelley. “Kelley!” Emily yelps. “What are you doing?”

 

“Just seeing what you bought,” Kelley says, continuing to follow Emily around the kitchen.

 

Emily lets out an exasperated huff before she goes to one of the bags rummaging to it. She pulls it out and hands it to Kelley. “Here, make yourself useful.”

 

Kelley turns it over, her eyes widening. “Aw, you bought me chocolate milk?”

 

“You’ve been complaining that they haven’t sent you your latest box like you can’t go out and buy it yourself,” Emily explains.

 

Kelley shakes one and opens it. “Thank you, I appreciate it.” She chugs half a bottle before sticking it in the fridge. “Hey, do you need any help?”

 

“Yeah, can you open the door for Christen and Tobin?” Emily calls over her shoulder.

 

“What?” Kelley says confused as she looks at her phone and sure enough there was a text from Tobin saying to open up. “Woah, you have superpowers.”

 

“I got a text,” Emily laughs.

 

“Hey guys,” Kelley greets as she opens the door.

 

“We’re here for free food,” Tobin declares as she enters, their dog in her arms. “And a play date for Wave.”

 

At the mention of another dog, Bear’s head pops up and he trots over to Tobin, immediately pawing at her to let the dog down.

 

“I can’t believe you let her name your dog Wave,” Kelley says to Christen.

 

“Your dog’s name is Bear,” Tobin says. “At least mine is original.” Bear whines, trying to get Tobin to put the dog down. “Okay, Bear, you be nice to Wave, okay?” Tobin puts the dog down, watching the two dogs play before she turns back to the human companions. “So, what’s the new recipe?”

 

“It’s pasta,” Emily says. She grabs a couple of wine from the bag. “Here, you guys can drink while I cook.”

 

“Ooh gimme,” Christen says as she takes the bottle from Emily. “Can’t wait what you cook up for us Emily.”

 

“Yeah, hopefully, I don’t spend the rest of the night on the toilet,” Tobin mutters as she grabs the wine.

 

Emily rolls her eyes. “You’re still standing aren’t you?”

 

Kelley sidles up to Emily, whispering, “Hey, do you need any help?”

 

Emily hands her the bread for the garlic bread. “Can you cut this?”

 

Kelley nods as she grabs the bread from her. They work together, Emily directing Kelley to do smaller tasks while they talk to Christen and Tobin. They finished making the dinner in no time thanks to Kelley’s proficient knife skills, much to Emily’s surprise.

-

-

-

“You guys look really friendly,” Christen comments.

 

“Oh, Emily is talking to you now?” Tobin asks as she leans back against the couch.

 

Kelley nods as she puts the drink underneath her chin. “Yep...I don’t know what happened, but she gave me ice cream and apologized.”

 

“Her homemade one?” Tobin asks, perking up, she stands up and starts walking towards the kitchen. “Is there any left?”

 

“No we finished it yesterday,” Kelley calls to her.

 

Tobin groans and turns back, walking back to the couch and plopping herself next to Christen. She scoots her body down and lays her head on Christen’s lap. “Damn it. Her ice cream is so good. I swear she puts crack in there or something.”

 

Kelley smiles. She knows what it is as Emily told her what it is when they were coming down from a small hike two weeks ago and the younger woman’s babbles seem to never end. “I know what it is.”

 

“What?” Tobin says, her eyes opening, shaking off Christen’s hands. “She told you? Not fair! You’ve only known her a month!”

 

“I think she felt really bad for treating me like an ass my first few weeks here,” Kelley says.

 

“That’s still so weird,” Tobin comments. “Emily is not like that at all. She’s like the most friendliest person I know.”

 

“Friendliest person,” Christen corrects.

 

“That’s what I said.”

 

“You said most friendliest. It’s either most friendly or friendliest. And since no one says most friendly. It’s friendliest,” Christen says.

 

“Well she’s still the most friendliest,” Tobin says, stubbornly. “It’s good that you guys don’t want to kill each other.”

 

“Well we didn’t want to kill each other,” Kelley corrects. “I really don’t know why she was like that. The way you described her was that she was really chill. That’s why I took you up on this offer instead of rooming with you guys.”

 

“That and you were hoping that she remembers your little tryst,” Christen says, her tongue clicking around the word tryst.

 

“Ha she forgot about it,” Tobin teases Kelley. “Must not be that memorable.”

 

“Can guarantee you it’s not that,” Christen mutters.

 

“What?” Tobin blurts out at the same time Kelley says, “Thanks, Chris.”

 

“You guys slept together before?” Tobin asks again.

 

“It was college,” Christen shrugs, dismissing it. “We were horny and we spent too much time together.”

 

“Yeah.  Don’t worry about it Tobs,” Kelley says. “I have no desire to see Christen in that way again.”

 

“You better not,” Tobin mutters darkly as she glares at Kelley and Christen.  

 

“Anywho, what are you going to do about this little predicament of yours?” Christen asks.

 

Kelley shrugs. “I don’t know what to do.”

 

“Why don’t you just tell her?” Tobin says. “I mean what if she does remember but you don’t know because you haven’t asked her?”

 

Kelley sighs. “You didn’t see her when I introduced myself to her. There was no recognition at all.”

 

“Just tell Emily!” Tobin yells, frustratedly just as the door opens and Emily walks in with Wave and Bear.

 

“Tell me what?” She asks the three women confused. She unlatches the leashes from the two dogs, throwing it in the dish for keys by the door.

 

“Nothing,” Kelley answers, making Tobin drop her head and groan in frustration. Kelley glares at Tobin.

 

“Okay,” Emily says as she comes over to them, sitting next to Christen on the floor as they play with the dogs.

 

Tobin nudges Christen, nodding her head to the door. “Hey guys, we gotta get going. It’s getting a bit late.”

 

“Yeah, we gotta hit the hay,” Christen says as she holds her hand out for Tobin to grab.

 

“So what’s the verdict for the new recipe?” Emily asks as she sees them to the door.

 

“Awesome!” Tobin says as she gives Emily a hug.

 

“Thanks, Tobs,” Emily says sarcastically. “Another awesome for you. At this point, all review of my recipes from you would either have Awesome or Cool or I'm allergic to that!”

 

“Hey! Your food is so good it leaves me without words to describe them, okay?” Tobin says to the younger girl.

 

Emily blushes but teases, “Oh wow, an actual review. Thanks, Tobin. I mean it this time.”

 

Tobin just pats her on the back. “You’re cooking is great as always, Em.”

 

“Yeah, thanks for the free food, Son,” Christen says as she gives Emily a hug.

 

Tobin goes to Kelley, pulling her in for a quick hug. But not quick enough as she was able to whisper to Kelley, “Just ask her!”

 

Kelley was about to say something to her when Christen pulls her in for a hug, saving Tobin from more annoying excuses from Kelley that she thinks at this point were just BS. Kelley turns to Emily once the door closes, raised an eyebrow. “Wanna watch a movie?”

-

-

-

“So I’ve got licorice and black licorice,” Kelley says as she walks into the living room from her bedroom, carrying the snacks.

 

“Ew who likes black licorice?” Emily asks, her face screwing up as her fist open and close towards Kelley. “Red please!”

 

“Black licorice is healthier for you,” Kelley says informatively.

 

“Yeah but it tastes so nasty,” Emily says as she bites off a chunk of her licorice. She settles in next to Kelley, putting her feet over Kelley’s lap. “What are we watching today?”

 

“I figured either How I Met Your Mother or FRIENDS,” Kelley says as she navigates through the Netflix app.

 

“No, please something different!” Emily begs. “Put on something more interesting.”

 

“Ooh, what about Castle?” Kelley says, her control hovering over the show. “I’ve been wanting to watch this for awhile.”

 

Emily shrugs. “Okay, sure that sounds good.”

 

Kelley whoops and puts it on, putting a pillow next to her and leaning against it. She moves Emily’s feet to make sure it’s not digging into her stomach. Emily wiggles it for good measure just to annoy her.

 

Kelley and Emily’s movie night had been a weekly thing where on Sundays they start a new TV show and proceed to binge watch the hell out of it for the next week. Sometimes they finish the series (like Firefly since it only had one season and one movie) or they don’t (LOST). If they don’t finish the show, they move on, no matter if they finish it or not, which drives Emily crazy. She wants to finish the show, but Kelley is content to just let it go.

 

After the fifth episode, Kelley was antsy and Emily notices. She tries to pay attention to the show again, but after Kelley’s fifth sigh in about ten minutes, Emily pauses the show and waits for Kelley to stop squirming in her seat. Kelley doesn’t seem to notice that Emily was waiting for her as she continues to look at her as if she dropped something.

 

“Alright, O’Hara, what the hell is going on?” Emily asks.

 

Kelley stops and looks up. She gives Emily a sheepish smile before saying. “It’s a little boring, don’t you think?”

 

Emily frowns. “I think it’s a pretty good show. And this was your idea!”

 

“It is!” Kelley quickly corrects herself, her palms in front of her, shaking it. “But watching five episodes in a row...it’s getting a little repetitive.”

 

“Alright, roomie, what do you wanna watch instead?” Emily asks.

 

“A scary movie?” Kelley suggests. Emily’s face pales and Kelley’s eyebrows raise minutely at the reaction. “Or not.”

 

Emily sighs. “No no, a scary movie is fine. Just don’t put on something gory. Those always squick me out.” She unfurls her feet underneath her as she stands. “I’m going to go to the bathroom real quick.” She turns and walks backward towards the hallways as she tells Kelley. “Remember nothing squicky okay?”

 

“Aye, aye!” Kelley says, saluting her. She already knew what movie she was going to make Emily watch and it’s guaranteed to make her squirm.

 

Emily comes back from the bathroom, stretching. She grabs the blanket as she carefully positions herself on the couch. As the movie starts, Emily groans at the intro screen. She glares at Kelley. “I said nothing scary!”

 

“It’s not scary!” Kelley defends. Emily continues to pout. “Em, c’mon you’ll be fine. It’s not scary at all. I promise to protect you!”

 

Emily just wraps herself in the blanket, making sure her head and feet are covered as she glares at her roommate. “I hate you right now.”

 

Kelley laughs and presses play.

-

-

-

“Please, Em?” Kelley asks.

 

Emily laughs. “I can’t believe you put the movie on to scare me, but instead scared yourself!”

 

“You fell asleep halfway through!” Kelley defends. “You didn’t see what I saw!”

 

Emily just shakes her head, an amused smile on her lips as she pulls the covers back. “Fine get in!”

 

“Thanks, Em! You’re the best!” Kelley says as she jumps onto the bed, tucking herself underneath the covers.

 

Emily laughs at her again before she reaches over to her side but just as she was about to turn off the lamp, she felt a hand on her arm. She looks down at Kelley with a question in her eyes.

 

“Uh, can we keep the lamp on?”

 

“Oh my god,” Emily laughs. “Fine!”

 

“Thanks, Em,” Kelley says, a bit sheepishly.

 

“Just go to sleep, O’Hara,” Emily says as she turns on her side, tucking her hand underneath her pillow.

 

“Good night.”

 

“Night.”

-

-

-

When Kelley wakes up with a warm weight on her chest, she panics. At first, she thought she brought home a woman, but when she looked down and saw the strawberry blonde hair, she calmed down minutely. She couldn’t explain it, but the feeling of waking up with Emily in her arms just felt right, like she’s supposed to be there. She strokes Emily’s hair with careful featherlight touches, not wanting to actually wake her up, but wanting to play with her hair.

 

She feels Emily stir in her arms and Kelley thought of faking it and going back to sleep but decided not to, bracing herself for the awkwardness that was about to ensue. She sees Emily’s head turn minutely, looking around the room, surveying it, before she looks up right at Kelley’s eyes.

 

Kelley watches as her cheeks blush as she looks up at Kelley, her eyes flitting to her lips before looking up at her eyes again.  “Good morning,” Kelley greets.

 

Emily opens her mouth before she shuts it again. “Uh, morning.” She looks down quickly before untangling herself from Kelley’s arms. “Sorry about that. I guess I like to cuddle when I’m sleeping.

 

Kelley dismisses her concerns with a wave. “Don’t worry about it, I enjoyed it.”

 

Emily laughs as she gets up, making her side of the bed. “Best sleep I’ve had in awhile actually.”

 

Kelley follows suit, making her bed as well and grabbing the blanket from the floor that she dragged from her room, but actually didn’t use. She watches as Emily goes around her room, tying her hair up into a ponytail and getting ready for the day ahead. It was a sight that she was robbed of that morning after when she woke up and Emily wasn’t there.

 

Emily feels eyes on her and when she turns around, Kelley was staring at her with this soft look at her face that it threw her off guard for a moment. She can feel her face flush at the gaze, but she jokes, “Are you just going to stand there or are you scared the demon elves are going to get you?”

 

Kelley doesn’t feel embarrassed at getting caught at all. “Funny,” she says, rolling her eyes at the younger woman. Kelley thinks she’s never seen anything more beautiful in the morning. _Fuck, I’m in trouble._

 


End file.
